


Rock Bottom

by Sfseven



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Earp Curse (Wynonna Earp), F/F, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26374705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sfseven/pseuds/Sfseven
Summary: Waverly and Nicole have supported Wynonna through many things, and vice versa. But what happens when Wynonna's actions put their child in danger?
Relationships: Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught
Comments: 32
Kudos: 220





	1. Drop Off

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea after watching too much Steve Wilkos (basically Jerry Springer)
> 
> As said in tags the character death is not shown in the story, but it is mentioned and is important
> 
> The kid is biologically Waverly and Nicole's for whatever reason you want. Whether that's because Nicole has a penis for some reason or they live in a universe where women can get women pregnant. As long as it's not magical.

Nicole doesn’t think she’s exaggerating when she thinks that this might be the most nervous she’s ever been. She wasn’t this nervous at 17 when Waverly told her she was pregnant. She wasn’t this nervous when she had to tell her parents that she had knocked up her girlfriend, or when she had to speak to Waverly’s Uncle Curtis and Aunt Gus after they found out that she had knocked up their niece. She wasn’t this nervous when her daughter was born, or the day that she was brought home from the hospital. She wasn’t this nervous when Winter started crawling and walking. She wasn’t this nervous when she asked Waverly to marry her at 18, or when they got married at 19. She wasn’t this nervous when she entered the police academy or on her first day on the job. And to be honest, she felt really guilty that she was this nervous.

She never thought that she would be this nervous about Wynonna watching her daughter, and yet, here she was. Wynonna had been there through everything. She was actually the first person Waverly told about the pregnancy, even before Nicole herself. She had been there for doctor’s appointments and at the birth. She had been the third person to hold Winter, right after Waverly and Nicole. But she had been more stable then.

Wynonna had always been a wild card and probably drank too much, but it had never made Nicole feel nervous. Wynonna would get up the next day and get her shit together and then go about her day as though she hadn’t just drank three grown men under the table. She would go do her bounty hunter thing and bring in the bad guys for Nicole or Dolls to book. Dolls when they were together and Nicole when they had their temporary breaks. Dolls was good for her. Sure, they broke up more times than years Nicole had lived, but they always got back together. Until they couldn’t. A shootout with resident gang leader Bobo Del Rey ended any hope of them getting back together. They had buried him eight months ago. Wynonna hadn’t been the same ever since.

Now Wynonna didn’t work, she drank a lot more than she used to, which was saying a lot, and she had a new boyfriend that Nicole didn’t trust farther than she could throw him. Nicole had told Waverly that she wasn’t comfortable with Wynonna watching Winter anymore. But Waverly wanted to give her a chance to shape up. Nicole had to admit that Waverly had a point when she said that Wynonna had never done anything to Winter or in front of her. But Nicole was still nervous and didn’t want to wait until something happened. So, they agreed on a compromise. Gus had to be there when Wynonna watched Winter. Wynonna had to earn the trust that she wouldn’t let her new drinking schedule impact Winter. That was why Nicole was nervously looking at the clock in her office waiting for it to turn to 4:00. That was when Wynonna was supposed to drop Winter off. In five minutes, Wynonna would drop off her little girl and she would be able to see how Wynonna looked, and how Winter looked.

She had been trying to finish the same report for an hour, but something just felt wrong. She had this awful feeling, but she wrote it off as just nerves. If anything was wrong Gus would call. She looked back at the clock. 3:58. She might as well walk out of her office. Stretch her legs a bit and meet Wynonna in the hall. She stood up and immediately cracked her neck and back. Turns out hunching over one report wasn’t great for your back. She walked out into the bullpen and smelled normal station smell of coffee, cleaning products, and a little bit of piss underneath it all that seemed permanently infused with the air in this place from all the drunks that passed through.

“Haughtstuff!” Nicole immediately turned as a little body collided with her leg. Wynonna was trailing behind with the four-year old’s bag. Winter was tightly holding onto Nicole’s leg, which made her a little uneasy. Winter was not a wild child, but she wasn’t shy either. She stroked the little brunette’s head.

“Hey Snowflake, how was your time with Auntie Nonna?” The little girl finally looked up. She didn’t look scared or hurt.

“It was good, mommy. We played some games and watched Spongebob!” The little girl was smiling now and the tension started to slowly ebb out of Nicole. Winter was fine.

“Spongebob! Well, better to watch that with Auntie Nonna than at home. You know how much Mama loves Spongebob.” Nicole rolled her eyes as Winter giggled. They both knew Waverly hated that little yellow sponge, for the pure reason that she considered his laugh to be mind numbing. Nicole finally looked up to Wynonna. Her uneasiness came back as she saw Wynonna’s bloodshot eyes. She calmed herself down. Winter said that Wynonna was good, Winter looked good, and her bloodshot eyes had almost become a staple. “How was she?”

“Oh please, as though the child of my angelic sister and you Ms. Pleat-in-your-pants could be anything other than amazing.” She winked at Winter as she handed Nicole the bag, causing Winter to burst into another fit of giggles.

“Well thanks anyways for watching her.”

“You never have to thank me for watching my niece, Red. The kid was great we had a good time.” The minty smell of mouthwash made Nicole even more uneasy.

“Why don’t you hang out in my office for a little while, Snowflake? I need to talk to Auntie Nonna for a second.” Winter nodded and ran to her mommy’s office, carefully reaching up to push the door closed as hard as she could. “Wynonna, I don’t want to believe that you’d drink in front of my kid—” Wynonna immediately scoffed and started to walk away. “Don’t walk away from me Wynonna.” Nicole called out and ran to step in front of her.

“I’m fine, Haught.”

“Your eyes are bloodshot and you used mouthwash.”

“I didn’t sleep well last night and I brushed my teeth, so what?”

“Don’t treat me like an idiot. I’m a cop, I see drunk people every day.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Haught.” Wynonna held her hand up in exasperation.

“I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me that you weren’t drunk while watching my kid. That you weren’t hungover while driving my daughter from your house to the station. Look me in the eyes and tell me that.”

“I’m not drunk.”

“I know that. But you were recently. Where you sober when Waverly dropped her off?”

“I had a drink this morning but I wasn’t drunk. I took a nap while the kid was watching cartoons. I’m fine now.”

“A nap or passed out?”

“Come on, Haught. You and I both know that a person can’t sober up that quickly.” Nicole knew Wynonna was right. But it didn’t change the fact that Wynonna had been drinking.

“You can’t drink when you’re watching her, or when you drive her places. I don’t care whether you’re drunk or not. You cannot do that.”

“Who are you to tell me what I can do?”

“You can do whatever the hell you want in your free time, Wynonna. But when you’re watching MY kid, you are NOT allowed to drink. I mean, fuck Wynonna, I know you know better”

“Whatever, Haught, the kid is fine.” Wynonna pushed passed Nicole and started walking towards the front doors.

“And where the hell was Gus?” Nicole shouted at her, but Wynonna’s answer was to just flip her off without turning around. Nicole groaned in frustration before taking a few calming breaths. Winter probably heard at least part of that conversation, but she didn’t want to go back to her tense. She would figure this all out after a conversation with Waverly and Gus. She turned around and walked back to her office to see Winter drawing all over the report she had left on her desk. “Winter, you know better than to draw on something on my desk.” Winter sheepishly looked up.

“But mommy, I was bored and you didn’t leave any paper for me.”

“You’re right, Snowflake. But that doesn’t mean you should draw on mommy’s work. Next time ask me.”

“But you and Auntie Nonna were fighting.”

“I know, Snowflake.” Nicole sighed and kneeled in front of her daughter. “Auntie Nonna and I were just having a disagreement, okay?” Winter quietly nodded her head, but Nicole could see that she was upset about her Aunt and mom fighting. “Let’s go home, we can have lasagna for dinner.”

“Will mama be there?”

“Not tonight, Snowflake. Remember? Mama has to work late tonight, but she will be home to read to you and tuck you in.”

“Because she has tests next week!”

“That’s right, she has her final tests next week which are super important. Which means that she won’t be around as much this week or next. But after that she will be done for the year and we’ll go out and eat to celebrate.

“Tacos!”

“We can have tacos if that’s what you want,” Nicole laughed. She was glad that Winter seemed to have forgotten about the fight. She held out her hand and the little girl hopped of the chair before grabbing it. “Now let’s see Nedley before we go. The last time I left the station with you without seeing him he put me on paperwork for a week.”


	2. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole finds out that Winter wasn't as safe with Wynonna as she thought

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: This chapter has a description of child abuse. It is not the actual event, but a child explaining what happened to them. It's also not extremely violent, more like spanking and grabbing with excessive force that resulted in bruises. If it bothers you then you can skip this chapter. It is obviously an important part of the story, but later chapters don't describe it as much as this one, just adults quickly telling other family members what happened.
> 
> I also want to note that I really don't know at what age children are able to do and say things, so Winter might be speaking at a level that's actually lower than the age I have in my head for her.
> 
> Also apologies to anyone named Jason, it's just a name that came to my head.

After Winter shifted in her seat for what felt like the hundredth time, Nicole started to get a little worried. She had been shifting throughout the car ride, when she was watching Spongebob while Nicole made dinner, and now during dinner Winter was still moving back and forth. That wasn’t the only change either. Winter was still smiling and laughing, but she seemed a bit more on edge. A little quieter.

“So what did you do with Auntie Nonna?”

“We made a puppy puzzle, had lunch, played Candyland.” Winter seemed happy to tell her mommy about her time with Wynonna.

“Auntie Nonna mentioned she had a nap. Did you nap too?” Winter immediately stiffened and looked away from Nicole, before slowly nodding her head. “What’s up, Snowflake?”

“Nothing.” Nicole noticed how her voice cracked a bit, it made her terrified. Nicole quickly stood up and went to kneel next to her daughter. Gently turning her so that they were facing each other.

“Snowflake, can you please look at me?” Nicole kept her voice soft and even though she was scared. She softly stroked her arms to try and calm her down. “Please?” Nicole repeated after getting no reaction. Finally, Winter looked up to Nicole with tears in her eyes.

“I did somethin’ bad, but I’m not suppose to tell you, mommy.”

“Snowflake, who told you not to tell me?”

“Jason.” Nicole’s breath hitched in surprise. How did Winter know Wynonna’s boyfriend? Waverly and her had agreed that they didn’t want him around her. He didn’t look like a nice guy and gave off bad vibes for both of them. Now she finding out that not only has Winter met him, but it sounds like this wasn’t the first time.

“How do you know Jason?” Winter’s eyes widened as though she realized something and immediately started crying.

“I wasn’t suppose to tell!” Winter was gasping for the breath now as she cried. The four-year-old looked as though she was on the verge of a panic attack. Nicole immediately pulled her into her arms and started rocking her.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not mad at you.”

“But—But—Auntie Nonna—”

“Did Auntie Nonna tell you not to tell us?” Winter nodded her head as she pushed her face into Nicole’s chest. Desperately grabbing her shirt. Nicole could feel a wet spot growing over her chest as the little girl continued to cry. Nicole just rocked her back and forth as she tried to calm her down. Whispering in her ear that everything would be okay and that she wasn’t mad.

Eventually her cries died down and she started to regain her breath. When Nicole thought maybe she could get some more answers. “How long ago did you meet Jason?”

“He watched Inside Out with us.” Nicole was getting more and more upset. Wynonna had rented that movie three weeks ago. Looking back on it while Winter had seemed happy about the movie, but she was more reluctant to spend time with Wynonna after that. That was when Nicole had started talking about Winter not being alone with Wynonna because she thought that she had been letting her grief affect how she dealt with Winter. Sure, right after Dolls’s death Wynonna was a mess and they didn’t let her watch Winter, but after she had gone through the initial grief it looked like it helped her to have Winter near. And Winter was always happy to see her, until three weeks ago. “I wanna tell you, but Auntie Nonna said it was our little secret.”

“Auntie Nonna should not have told you that. It was very wrong of her.”

“Was I bad for not tellin’ you?”

“No Snowflake. You were listening to Auntie Nonna. Usually that is good, so you were just trying to be good, right?” Winter nodded her head. Desperately looking into her mommy’s eyes for any sign of anger. “Auntie Nonna was bad for telling you to keep a secret, not you.”

“But, what about surprises?”

“Then you will need to use your good judgement. If the surprise is something that you think could hurt the person or make them feel bad then you shouldn’t keep it. Also, if it involves you then you need to tell either me or mama. Auntie Nonna told you to keep a surprise about you meeting someone. Does it make sense why we would need to know that?” Winter looked confused before slowly nodding her head.

“You and mama keep me safe.”

“Exactly, so we need to know about you meeting a stranger. Even if they tell you that we know them you need to tell us.” Winter nodded her head again before wiping her face with Nicole’s shirt. Nicole smiled before remembering the original problem. “What did Jason tell you to keep secret, Snowflake?” Immediately Winter started tearing up again. Nicole tightened her hold again. “It’s okay, I won’t be mad. I promise. I might be disappointed, but never mad. But you need to tell me what happened, okay? It’s very important that I know what’s going on.” Winter eventually calmed down and looked up at Nicole again. Nicole smiled down at those big brown eyes. The color was all her but the shape was definitely Waverly. She gently wiped Winter’s face before kissing her forehead. “What happened?”

“I took a nap, but when I wake up Auntie Nonna was sleeping. That drink in the bottle that smells stinky was on the floor. I don’t like it when Auntie Nonna drinks that.”

“How often has she drunk them in front of you.”

“A lot since Jason.”

“Why don’t you like it when she drinks them?”

“She sounds funny and her eyes get weird. It scary.” Nicole briefly tightened her hold on Winter before kissing the top of her head. Breathing in the strawberry scent of Winter’s shampoo to calm herself down.

“What happened when you found Auntie Nonna sleeping?”

“I wanted to do something nice for Auntie Nonna so I went to get her some water. I wanted to get her a big girl cup. So I climbed up to grab one. I know I’m not suppose to do that, mommy, but I was really careful. I got down, but I had to get my stool. Then Jason scared me and I dropped the cup and it broke!” Winter was starting to hyperventilate again and Nicole immediately shushed her and focused on calming her down.

“It’s okay, Snowflake. You need to calm down and take a breath. Okay?” The little girl listened to her mommy and eventually calmed down. "You okay now?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you keep telling me what happened?”

“Jason was really mad that I broke the cup. He grabbed my arm and pull me into my room and then he was yellin’ and my arm really hurt.” Nicole now regretted putting Winter in a long-sleeved shirt today.

“Can I see your arm?” Winter slowly held up her right arm, and Nicole gently pulled up the sleeve. Nicole gasped as she saw the beginnings of a bruise on her daughter’s upper arm. She wanted to cry in anger and grief. How dare he lay his hands on her little girl. How dare he scare her like that. However, she had a sinking feeling that it didn’t stop there. She took a deep breath and wiped her face with the hand not holding Winter’s arm. “What happened after that?”

“He told me I was bad. That I needed to be taught a lesson.” Winter looked so scared and was crying again. Nicole felt bad for putting her daughter through this, but she had to know what happened.

“Keep going. I won’t be mad at you, I promise.”

“He—He turn me and pull my pants down. Then he hit me, mommy! He hit my butt and it hurt! I was cryin’ but he wouldna stop! Then he threw me down and keep yellin’. He told’ me to not tell Auntie Nonna or anyone or else I be in even more trouble.” Nicole pulled her daughter’s head into the crook of her neck and began rocking her again. She was furious but she couldn’t let Winter see that.

“Snowflake, can I see how your butt? I want see how hurt you are.” Winter nodded and stood up. Nicole slowly turned her around and pulled down her daughter’s pants. She froze as she saw her daughter’s butt completely red It looked like a giant red mess and she knew it would all turn purple soon. She quickly pulled the pants back up before turning Winter back around and hugging her. She was on the verge of tears now. “It’s going to be okay. He shouldn’t have done that to you. But now mama and I are going to make sure he doesn’t touch you again. Do you understand? Mama and I will protect you. He will never touch you again.” Winter had her arms wrapped around Nicole’s neck. Holding onto her as though her life depended on it. Nicole supposed that maybe that’s exactly what she thought. Nicole stood up with her daughter still in her arms. She wasn’t planning on letting her go anytime soon. Though it was harder to hold her while trying not to put any pressure on her butt.

“Where was Gus during all this?” Winter looked at Nicole with a confused look on her face.

“Why would Auntie Gus be there, mommy?” Nicole went from furious to just as confused as her daughter. Waverly and her had agreed that Gus needed to be there while Wynonna watched her, for this very reason. From what Winter said it sounded like not only was Gus not there the whole time, but she hadn’t been there at all. That meant one of two things. Either Wynonna had told Waverly that Gus was there when she wasn’t and Waverly believed her, or Waverly had lied to her. Nicole quickly recovered because either way this was a conversation for Waverly not Winter.

“Why don’t we get ready for bath time?” She waited for Winter to nod her head before carrying her up to the bathroom. “Okay, Snowflake, I’ll get the bath ready. Why don’t you grab your towel, grab some PJs and get ready for your bath?” Winter nodded and ran off to her room as Nicole turned on the faucet. Once she got it to the right temperature and started filling the tub, she took out her phone.

_Come home now. Everyone’s fine, but something happened while Winter was with Wynonna._

She was slightly uncomfortable using the word fine, but she didn’t want Waverly to panic. After reading over the text one more time she hit send.


	3. Uniting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole tells Waverly what happened and more information is revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few notes so bear with me:
> 
> Small TW, just in case, because of a paragraph where Nicole tells Waverly everything she found out in the last chapter
> 
> I'm worried people might misunderstand what exactly happened to Winter. Jason did pull her pants down, but it was to spank her. There was no sexual abuse, especially rape. Though I do understand why people may have thought that. The reason I made the decision to have him pull down her pants in order to hit her was because I thought it would make it more obvious that this was child abuse instead of a spanking gone too far. I didn't think it would be taken as sexual abuse, but I will try to be more aware in the future.
> 
> Lastly, you may have noticed I added two chapters to this story. This was because when I first started posting I thought I had finished it, but I wasn't really happy with how it ended. So I moved my previous chapter 6 to chapter 7, wrote a whole new chapter 6 and added chapter 8. I'm a lot happier with how it turned out, and I hope it will feel finished.

Waverly had quickly gone home, but Nicole had insisted that they talk after Winter was asleep. Winter was exhausted from all the crying so an early bedtime wasn’t that hard to achieve. Afterwards they found themselves in the living room. Waverly was sitting on the couch watching Nicole pace back and forth.

“I’m going to ask you something.” Nicole finally stopped pacing and turned towards Waverly but still wasn’t looking at her. “I don’t want you to think I’m accusing you, but I need to know. Okay?”

“Okay” Waverly was getting uneasy. First Nicole’s cryptic and unnerving text and now Nicole seemed so nervous and even had an undercurrent of anger in her tone. Nicole finally looked Waverly in the eyes.

“Did you know Gus wasn’t helping to watch Winter today?” Waverly immediately looked down. Nicole could instantly see the guilt written on her face. “You did, didn’t you? After everything we talked about. We agreed Gus had to be there until Wynonna got herself more together.”

“I know but—”

“But nothing! We agreed! And now it turns out you were just lying to me!” Waverly knew Nicole wouldn’t be happy, but she didn’t think she would react like this. Nicole looked so upset. Her eyes looked almost wild.

“That’s not what happened.” Waverly tried to calm her down. “When we agreed on that I was completely telling the truth. But then when I asked Gus, it turned out that she had this super important party coming to Shorty’s. She had to be there, and I just thought that we could trust Wynonna just one more time.”

“If Gus couldn’t do it then you should have just brought her to the station. You know Nedley would have understood!” While Nicole wasn’t freaking out anymore, she was still yelling. Waverly couldn’t figure out why. Sure, she probably made a mistake not bringing Winter to the station, but usually they could talk though disagreements civilly.

“Okay, I’ll agree that I probably should have done that. But I had already asked Wynonna and I didn’t want her to think that we didn’t trust her.”

“What message did you think we’d be sending when Gus would be watching Winter with her?” Waverly winced. She had thought about that, but she hoped that Wynonna would just ignore it or not notice.

“I know. I know. But she loves Winter. I was going to tell you tonight; I just didn’t want you overreacting and rushing over to her house to grab Winter. Then she would think that you really don’t trust her, and right now she needs us more than ever.”

“Overreacting! We agreed Waverly! We agreed that Gus had to be there so that we could make sure Winter is safe!” Now Waverly was mad. Nicole was questioning how she took care of their daughter. She shot up and started yelling right back.

“Winter is fine, Nicole! Wynonna watched her without Gus and she is fine!”

“She is not fine!” Waverly’s blood immediately turned to ice. Why would Nicole say that Winter isn’t fine? She just saw her. She looked fine. Sure, she was a little quieter and she was more tired than usual. But she looked fine. Nicole had said everyone was fine in the text. But Nicole looked so upset. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. Her eyes looked so sad and defeated.

“What do you mean?” Waverly whispered. “What do you mean she isn’t fine? We just saw her, Nicole. We tucked her in. She is asleep upstairs. She is fine.” Nicole’s face crumbled. She walked over to the couch before falling onto it. With her head in her hands she mumbled.

“Something happened.”

“What happened?” Waverly was getting desperate. Nicole was saying that something happened to their baby and she didn’t know about it. Nicole finally looked up. She had tears running down her face.

“Wynonna’s been drinking in front of Winter. Winter said that when she woke up from her nap, she found Wynonna sleeping on the couch with a weird smelling drink in a bottle on the floor. Apparently, that isn’t the first time she’s seen Wynonna drinking. She said that she doesn’t like it when Wynonna drinks it because she sounds weird and her eyes look weird and it scares her.” Waverly was definitely not happy that Wynonna was drinking like that in front of her daughter. But that didn’t explain this kind of reaction from Nicole.

“What else?”

“She introduced Jason to her.”

“What?” Waverly’s anger was starting to rise. Nicole and Waverly had specifically told Wynonna that Jason was not allowed anywhere near Winter. Wynonna had seemed like she understood and agreed, even if it was a little reluctantly. “How long?”

“From what Winter said at least three weeks. She said that he was there when Wynonna rented Inside Out.”

“Three weeks?” The guilt started crushing Waverly. That’s how long Winter has been reluctant to see Wynonna. Then it felt like cold water was dumped on her. “What did he do to her?” Nicole took a deep sigh as though she was trying to calm down. Whether from anger or grief Waverly wasn’t sure.

“She wanted to get Wynonna a glass of water when she found her still sleeping. She got a glass from the cabinet; she knew it was wrong of her to climb up the counter but she wanted to do something nice for Wynonna. Anyways, after she climbed down with the glass Jason walked in and demanded to know what she was doing. He had snuck up on her so she got scared and dropped the glass. It broke. He freaked out and grabbed her. Pulled her into her room and started screaming at her. I’m guessing he did that because he didn’t want Wynonna to wake up. He had the frame of mind to think that through. He wanted to hurt her and he knew Wynonna wouldn’t be okay with it so before he actually did anything, he dragged her away.” Nicole and Waverly both had tears running down their faces.

“What happened in that room, Nicole?” Waverly knew she had to know, but she was terrified. All of these horrible scenarios were rushing through her head. She kept reminding herself that she had seen Winter earlier. Obviously, it wasn’t like she needed a hospital. But someone had still hurt her baby.

“He screamed at her. And then he—he—” Nicole took a deep breath to calm herself. Waverly knew that even though she was desperate to know what happened she couldn’t rush Nicole. Nicole finally collected herself enough to continue. “He hit her. He pulled her pants down and spanked her with way too much force.” Waverly felt her knees buckle. She quickly found her way to the couch and collapsed next to her wife. “She was terrified when she told me, Waves. He threatened her afterwards. He told her that if she told anyone she would be in even more trouble. After he had just beat her and scared the shit out of her.” Waverly wanted to cry but she just felt numb. She had trusted Wynonna with her kid. She knew she was having some problems. But she never thought that her sister would allow that to affect Winter. Now she has found out that she had been drinking in front of Winter, allowed someone around Winter that they had specifically told her they didn’t want near her, and her daughter had been hit while in her care.

“She didn’t know, right? Please tell me she didn’t know.” On the one hand she wanted Wynonna to have been responsible enough to know what happened. But that ship seemed to have already sailed. Now she would prefer that Wynonna hadn’t seen anything. Ignorance was better than standing by and doing nothing.

“As far as I can tell she didn’t know. Before I knew anything, I spoke to Wynonna and it didn’t seem like she knew. But I haven’t spoken to her since Winter told me, so I haven’t had a chance to ask her about it.” Waverly breathed a sigh of relief.

“What do we do now?” She felt so defeated. All she wanted to do was go upstairs and hold her daughter close. She looked to Nicole who looked just as devastated, but also had a look of determination.

“We’re going to have to take her to the station tomorrow. File a report.”

“Is that okay? I mean you work there. Isn’t that like a conflict of interest or something?”

“We’ll probably have to call someone in from the city, but it all starts with telling Nedley.”

“Okay. First thing tomorrow we’ll take her to the station. Should we also take her to the hospital? Make sure nothing’s broken?”

“That sounds good. I don’t think anything is, she let me feel the bruise on her arm and I didn’t feel or see anything. But just to make sure.” Waverly took a deep breath. Tears were still slowly falling down her face. She wanted to go to Nicole. Hold her and be held. But she didn’t deserve that. Not after leaving her daughter somewhere that Nicole had clearly known was a danger to her.

“I’m sorry, Nicole.”

“You shouldn’t blame yourself.”

“Why not? You said it yourself. We agreed that Wynonna couldn’t watch her alone and I just disregarded that.”

“You didn’t know this would happen.”

“But we knew it could. That’s why we made the decision we did. So that she wouldn’t have to go through that. So that we wouldn’t have to go through this. I knew Gus wouldn’t be there and I completely disregarded what we had agreed.”

“I don’t blame you.” Waverly finally turned to look at Nicole. Searching her face for any sign of deceit. She found a lot of emotions swimming in Nicole’s eyes. Nicole was never very good at trying to hide things from her. She found pain, sorrow, anger, a little bit of fear. But no deceit. Nicole was angry, but not with her.

“I blame me.”

“Please don’t. Blame the asshole that hurt our daughter. He’s the one that deserves all of our anger and hatred. You can even blame Wynonna for her part to play. God knows I do. But don’t blame yourself. You thought you could trust Wynonna to keep Winter safe. You should be able to trust that. Wynonna violated the trust that she had built up.” Nicole sighed and pulled Waverly into her arms. “It is awful that she violated our trust like this and we found out about it all at once. But neither of us saw this coming. We just thought that Wynonna might start saying things to Winter because of her drinking or that Winter would get scared because of it. The worst case we thought of was Wynonna being reckless when driving Winter somewhere, and even then, we agreed we weren’t there yet. Neither of us thought it would get here, and that is mostly because we still thought Jason wasn’t involved with Winter.”

“I know but—”

“If you knew that Wynonna had allowed Jason to be around Winter, after we specifically told her he was not allowed to be around her, what would your reaction have been?” Waverly tried to think really hard about what she would’ve done. She didn’t want to think as a mother who already knew what that man had done. But the fact of the matter was that she had already had a bad feeling about Jason.

“I would have been angry.” She finally answered. Pulling back to look at Nicole’s face. “I would have been really angry. It would have been a major violation of trust and I wouldn’t know if I could trust her with Winter anymore if she was just going to disregard my feelings about who’s around my daughter. Especially if she then tried to hide it.”

“Exactly. Waves, we didn’t know. If we knew we both would have made different decisions.” Nicole slowly leaned towards Waverly before softly kissing her. “It’s not your fault, baby.” Waverly choked out a sob and threw herself into Nicole’s arms.

“It’s not your fault, Waves. But we do need to talk about something else.” Waverly pulled back and looked at her wife in confusion. “We need to talk about what we’re going to do about Wynonna.” Waverly let out a deep breath and nodded her head. She knew they had to talk about this eventually. She wiped her face and calmed herself down so they could have this conversation.

“You’re right.” Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. “You don’t want to have her arrested, do you? I know she shouldn’t have been drinking and that she is partially responsible for what happened. But I don’t want to have my sister arrested.”

“I don’t want that either.” Nicole placated as she rubbed Waverly’s arms to help calm her down. “I don’t want Wynonna to be arrested, but I don’t want her around Winter either. Not at all.” Waverly was relieved to hear that Nicole didn’t want Wynonna to go to jail. But then she realized what the redhead had said afterwards.

“You want to take Winter away from her? Nicole, Winter might be the only thing holding her together. She’s crying out for help. I agree that Wynonna can’t babysit anymore. But no contact whatsoever?”

“I love Wynonna. You know I love her. She’s my best friend and the closest thing I have to a sister. But that can’t matter anymore. Winter was hurt while in her care. Winter has already said that she gets scared of Wynonna. I do not want her around our daughter until she is better. And it is not fair of you to put Wynonna’s mental health on a four-year-old.” Waverly knew that Nicole was right, but she didn’t want to give up on her sister, and that’s what this felt like.

“Wynonna needs us.”

“And she has us. I’m not saying I don’t want you around Wynonna. You may be my wife, but you are not my property. I would never tell you that you couldn’t see someone, especially Wynonna. I’m not even saying that I won’t be there for her. The second Wynonna tells me she needs my help, I’ll be there. I’m saying that until Wynonna gets some help and gets herself together, I don’t want our daughter exposed to that. We have to protect Winter first, then we can help your sister.”

“Okay,” Waverly nodded her head as she finally conceded. “Wynonna won’t see Winter. You’re right, Winter comes first. I promise, I won’t let her near her.”

“Are you sure, Waverly? Because I don’t want to hear from someone else that they saw Wynonna with Winter. Or hear from Winter that she saw her Auntie Nonna. Don’t just say what you think I want to hear.” Waverly shut her eyes as she put her head in her hands. It hurt that Nicole asked her that, but she understood. They had made a similar agreement just days ago. One that Waverly had broken this morning. She finally looked up and straight into the redhead’s eyes.

“I swear to you. I mean what I said. We need to protect Winter. Right now, that means no Wynonna. I’m not going to lie, if Wynonna needs my help to get better then I’m going to help her. But not at the expense of our daughter. She comes first. And I swear I’ll never do anything similar to what I did this morning. We agreed on something, and I didn’t follow through. I’m so sorry. I just need you to give me one last chance.” Nicole looked at her wife for a couple minutes. Trying to see if Waverly truly felt what she was saying.

“I love you, Waverly.” Nicole finally said. “I love you so much, and have since I was sixteen years old. We’ve been through so much together, and haven’t always agreed on things. But we’ve always worked our way through them, because we never lied to each other. I know you didn’t see what you were doing as lying, but that’s what it felt like. But like I said, we have always worked our way through things, and I think we’ll work our way through this. I’m going to believe you Waverly. I’m going to trust what you are saying. But I need you to know something. If I find out that you lied to me again and Wynonna sees Winter before we agree on it, then I don’t know if I’ll be able to trust you again.”

“I understand. I’ll never do anything like that again. I’m sorry.” Waverly started to cry. Her breathing started to get ragged. Nicole reached over and pulled the brunette into her arms. Softly shushing her as she held her tightly and kissed her head, breathing in the apple scent of her wife’s shampoo. Waverly kept whispering her apologies into Nicole’s shoulder as her tears created a wet spot on her shirt.

“I forgive you, baby. We’ll get through this. As a family.” Nicole felt the tears falling down her own face as the events of the day crashed down on her. The two mothers sat in each other’s arms as they felt the devastation of their happiness coming crashing down.


	4. The Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole tells Nedley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but I wanted to show Nedley finding out and explain a bit more what's happening with the conflict of interest thing.
> 
> I'm not exactly sure how the Canadian system works, but something like this is what is supposed to happen if there is a conflict of interest in a department so small that no one could be partial during the investigation in the US. How often it actually works that way, I'm not sure.
> 
> Also I'm sorry if I'm disappointing anyone with this, but Jason himself won't be making an appearance in this story. I want the focus to be on Nicole, Waverly, Winter, and Wynonna.

Nicole walked into the station with her little girl in her arms and Waverly by her side. The morning had gone okay. They had made blueberry chocolate chip waffles for Winter for breakfast, and Winter seemed okay when they told her that they all were going to the station today to talk with Nedley. However, she couldn’t help but feel on edge about doing this. She knew they needed to, and she wanted to. She wanted Jason to pay for what he did. But she also knew that meant Winter would have to tell a lot of people what had happened to her. She shook those thoughts out of her head as she made her way towards Nedley’s office.

“Here.” She turned to Waverly and handed Winter over. “Take her to my office while I explain what’s going on to Nedley.” Waverly nodded her head and carried their little girl away. Nicole took a deep breath before walking over to her boss’s office and knocking.

“Enter.” Nicole opened the door before quickly walking in and closing it behind her. “Haught? What are you doing here? I thought you had the day off.”

“Something’s happened sir.” Nedley immediately stiffened. He looked worriedly towards Nicole.

“Nothing too bad I hope,” he spoke softly. Nicole had to take another deep breath. She had to control herself. There was no way she could cry in front of her boss.

“Something happened to Winter. Yesterday while Wynonna was supposed to be watching her.”

“What are you talking about? You brought her to my office yesterday after Wynonna dropped her off. She looked good.” Now he looked more confused instead of worried.

“She told me what happened when we got home.” Nedley immediately sat up straighter.

“Sit down, Haught. Tell me what’s going on.”

“I’d prefer to stand, sir.” He nodded his head and grunted in acceptance. “Do you know of Jason Brady, sir?”

“I know he’s Wynonna’s new man. No priors but I don’t like him.”

“Waverly and I didn’t either, so we told Wynonna that we didn’t want him near Winter. Turns out Wynonna didn’t listen to us.”

“What did he do to that little angel?” Nedley’s voice got very low and dark. It was the scariest tone Nicole had ever heard him use.

“He grabbed her arm and screamed at her. And then… he um… he used excessive force when he spanked her.” Nicole watched as the sheriff quickly stood up. His hands were still on his desk as he looked down to the floor.

“How bad?” He sounded broken. It was no secret how he felt about Nicole. When she was growing up, he was usually more of a father to her than her own parents were. They met because Waverly is Chrissy’s best friend, and Nicole had been close with both Wynonna and Waverly. Since he found out that her parents cared more about their travel plans than their own daughter, he had taken her under his wing. He went to her basketball games. He taught her how to fix up a car. He frantically drove to the hospital when Nicole got in a minor car accident her junior year. He was the first person Nicole told about Waverly’s pregnancy after she found out. He frantically drove to the hospital again when he got the call that Waverly was in labor, and again when she was actually in labor and not going through Braxton Hicks contractions. Nicole was his daughter, same as Chrissy. Winter was his granddaughter. Hearing that someone hurt that little girl. That amazing little girl who had never wronged anyone in her life. He wanted to throw up and flip over his desk at the same time.

“She has a bruise on her arm where he grabbed her. And her butt… he hit her really hard. It was all red when I looked at it last night, I would be surprised if it wasn’t a bruised mess today.”

“I’m guessing you want to file a report.”

“Yes sir. I know we probably need to call someone in from RCMP. But I brought her here just in case you wanted to get an initial statement.”

“No, you’re right. We need to make sure that he doesn’t get out on a technicality. Which means me and none of the officers in this building can talk to her. I’ll make the calls. You take her to the hospital to get checked out. We’re going to need a doctor’s report of her injuries anyways.”

“Understood sir.” Nicole turned around to leave before pausing. “She’s in my office. If you want to see her.” Nedley took a deep breath before nodding his head.

“Yeah. I’d really like that.” They walked over to Nicole’s office and walked in the see the little girl in Waverly’s lap at Nicole’s desk drawing on a piece of paper. The brunette looked up at them and the smile on her face dropped a bit. Nicole shook her head a little bit. Silently communicating that nothing would happen right now.

“Hey Sweetheart. Look whose here to see you.” Winter looked up and squealed when she saw Nedley standing in the doorway. Nedley dropped to one knee as the tiny brunette ran to hug him.

“Grandpa Nedley! Mama and I were drawin’ a kitty. You wanna help? Mama is makin’ the grass. But you can color the sky!”

“I would love to help you draw the sky. But, unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do, so this is just a quick visit.”

“Okay,” Winter sighed in disappointment. Then looked at Nedley confusedly. “But mommy said that we had to talk?”

“You are very right, Winter. But right now, I have a few calls to make while your mommies take you somewhere else. Then either today or tomorrow you’ll come back here and then we’ll talk. Is that okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Good girl.” The sheriff kissed the girl on the top of the head before lifting her up to hand her over to the redhead standing next to him. “You call me after and tell me how it goes?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” Nedley turned to leave as Waverly collected their things. He stopped and turned back.

“Haught,” he called out. Nicole turned to face her boss. “I don’t want to see you back here in a uniform for at least a week. You understand?” Usually Nicole would protest. She hated missing work. Especially when it was a good distraction. But now all she wanted to do was be with her daughter. She also knew it was futile to try and argue with him.

“Yes sir,” she called back. “And thank you.”

“So, what’s going on?” Nicole turned to Waverly who had a questioning look on her face.

“Nedley needs to call in some people to do the interview, because of the conflict of interest. So, we’re going to get her checked out to make sure she’s okay and get a hospital record that the prosecutor can use later if they need it. When the people get here, we will bring her back.”

“Sounds good, baby.” Waverly placed a quick kiss on Nicole’s lips and then a longer one on Winter’s head before the couple left the station for the hospital.


	5. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waverly talks to Wynonna

It had been a long 48 hours. Nicole and Waverly had brought Winter to the hospital and gone through a grueling checkup. Winter had been nervous and quiet. She had clung to Waverly through most of it. Then Nedley had called to tell them that the investigators from the RCMP had arrived. When they arrived back at the station it turned out they came with some social workers from CPS. Waverly understood that they needed to investigate because it was a case of child abuse, but being questioned whether her or Nicole had caused those injuries to their daughter left her frustrated and hurt. Luckily it seemed they believed their version of events and allowed them to sit with their daughter as she told the investigators what happened. After that the family had finally been able to go home and at least try to have a normal evening and night. Winter’s nightmares had dashed any chance of that.

This morning, however, Waverly knew she had something to do. Nicole was staying with Winter at home while Waverly went out. She needed to talk to her sister. She needed to look Wynonna in the eyes and ask her what she knew about this situation. She needed to know if what happened would cause irreparable damage to their relationship. That’s how she found herself sitting in her car in the homestead driveway. Finally, she got out and felt the cool air hit her. She knocked loudly on the door before she opened it. Her sister immediately fell off the couch with a crash. There were bottles of beer and whiskey around her on the floor.

“What the fuck,” Wynonna groaned loudly before looking up to her sister. “Baby girl, give a girl some warning before you barge into her house why don’t you?”

“Why? So you could clean up the evidence? Throw out all the bottles and pop a mint?” The older brunette rolled her eyes as she stood up and brushed herself off.

“Come on, Waves, Haught got you on this too? Yes, I drank a little last night. Sue me.”

“Two bottles of whiskey and the numerous beer bottles around you don’t tell me it was a _little_ drinking. And Nicole hasn’t put me up to anything. _I_ have been worried about you too. Your drinking has gotten out of control, Wynonna. It’s gone too far now.”

“What did Officer Stick-Up-Ass say to you? My breath was a little minty and I didn’t get enough sleep and suddenly I’m a drunk?” Wynonna was raising her voice. Waverly could tell that she was getting defensive, which only made her feel more sure in her opinion of Wynonna’s drinking. “I’ve always drunk a little more than normal people. I’m fine, Waves.”

“Well Winter isn’t.” Wynonna stopped and stared at her sister. She actually looked a little scared. “Winter isn’t fine. She told us everything, Wynonna. She told us how you’ve been drinking more in front of her. How it scares her because you don’t talk like yourself.” Wynonna flinched. It was obvious the idea that she had scared her niece affected her.

“Alright, I’ve drunk a couple beers in front of her before. But I’ll stop. I don’t want to scare her. That’s the last thing I want, you know that.”

“What about Jason?” Waverly saw as her sister’s eyes got impossibly wide. “Yeah, she told us you introduced her. How often has he been with my daughter after I specifically told you that we didn’t want him around her?”

“Waves I know—”

“How many times, Wynonna.” Waverly wasn’t about to back down from this. She needed to know how many times Wynonna had disregarded her wishes.

“Waves—”

“A number, Wynonna. All I need is a number.”

“Twice.” Waverly looked into her sister’s eyes. The older woman was tearing up and looking desperately into her eyes, begging her to believe her.

“That include the day before yesterday?”

“Yes. But those were the only times, I swear. The first time he showed up without telling me, and I was annoyed but Winter seemed okay. Then the other day we had plans for that night and he just showed up early.”

“Three hours early?”

“He didn’t have anywhere else to be. He didn’t know I was watching the kid.” Wynonna shrugged weekly while looking down at the floor, as though she knew that was a weak excuse. 

“You just thought that everything looked okay, so why not just do whatever you want and let this man your sister doesn’t like around her own daughter?”

“No Waves—”

“Then what was it?” Waverly was getting increasingly irritated with Wynonna’s excuses, but she didn’t want to raise her voice. That could quickly cause this conversation to get out of control. “Why would you let him around her?”

“I just thought that he was already there, and I was watching her. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her; you know that Waves. It’s not like I let him take her anywhere.”

“No, you just left him alone with her.”

“What?”

“The day before yesterday. She was taking a nap, and then you drank a beer or two—”

“Waves—”

“And you fell asleep. Winter woke up and found you asleep. Jason showed up soon afterwards. You were asleep while Jason was with Winter. You left her alone.”

“But nothing happened! If she called for me, I would have woken up. I would have protected her from him and then kicked his ass so hard I would probably be in jail right now. I woke up and Jason was in the kitchen eating some leftovers and Winter was playing in her room. He didn’t do anything to her!”

“The bruises say otherwise!” Waverly couldn’t help shouting. She was so upset and angry, Wynonna’s actions had allowed her daughter to be alone and defenseless. However, the aftermath of her outburst was complete silence. Waverly was almost worried that Wynonna hadn’t heard her, but the wide eyes staring back at her told her otherwise. Wynonna finally whispered.

“What—”

“What bruises? How about the bruise on Winter’s arm that’s in the shape of a hand? Or the giant purple splotches covering her butt? Those bruises. Or what about the fact that I spent all day yesterday taking Winter to the hospital to make sure she wasn’t injured any worse than what we could see. Then afterwards we went to the station to talk with investigators. I had to listen to my daughter telling them how a grown man had manhandled her and then spanked her with excessive force. Telling them how scared she was when he was screaming in her face! Nicole and I had to talk with social workers because they wanted to make sure that we weren’t the ones hurting her.”

“Baby girl, I… I don’t…” Wynonna was shaking her head in disbelief.

“I don’t either, Wynonna. I don’t know what to do. I love you so much. You’re my sister and you have been there for me for so long. And I know how hard it hit you when Dolls died.” Wynonna made a small noise as a couple tears fell down her cheek before she quickly wiped them away and turned around so Waverly couldn’t see her sister’s face. “I can’t imagine losing Nicole like that. It honestly scares the shit out of me. And I know I’ve been busy with school the past few weeks, and Nicole has been basically at work or watching Winter. But you can’t keep going like this. You need to reach out to someone. It can be me, Nicole, Gus, hell give Mercedes a call, but it needs to be someone. You need to take the first step. I am begging you, let this be your rock bottom.” Waverly was very openly crying now. Wynonna was still not looking at her, but she could tell that the older brunette was crying as well.

“I mean it, Wynonna. You need to make a change. Because until you do my family can’t be around you.” Wynonna quickly turned around with a look of shock on her face. Tears still falling.

“Wait, baby girl, please don’t. Please don’t leave me.”

“I’m not leaving you, Wynonna. Like I said if you want my help all you have to do is call, I’ll be there for whatever you need.” She saw her sister calm down, but still had an air of uneasiness around her. “But until you make some progress, Winter can’t be around you. I trusted you with her and she got hurt. I can’t take that chance, not until you at least start taking steps forward. And until you at least try to make a change I can’t be around you either. I won’t watch you self-destruct. I won’t watch you turn into daddy.” Wynonna visibly flinched.

“Okay,” Wynonna nodded her head in resignation. “I’ll fix this, Waves, I’ll fix me. I promise.” Waverly slowly made her way to her sister before wrapping her arms around her middle.

“I really hope you do,” Waverly whispered. “Because if you don’t change something, then you can’t be in my life. And I’d really don’t want to lose another member of my family. Just remember, if you need my help, I’ll be there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you might be surprised by the lack of yelling in this, and I think if it was anyone else Waverly would have her shotgun out, but I honestly think that because it's Wynonna Waverly would be less aggressive during this kind of conversation.


	6. Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna does some soul searching

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: This chapter does include Wynonna's point of view the day Dolls dies. She doesn't see anything, but there is a blood covered Nicole. Wynonna also has some dark thoughts of self-hatred, but nothing suicidal.

Waverly had left the homestead just over an hour ago, leaving Wynonna alone. Wynonna couldn’t blame her, she had Winter to take care of. But she couldn’t help the overwhelming sadness and loneliness that seemed to be crushing her. She used to hate this house. It was the house that mama left. It was the house that daddy beat them in. It was the house that her and her baby sister had been alone in when the police showed up to bring them to their aunt and uncle’s house, where they told them that their daddy and big sister had been in an accident so they couldn’t live there anymore. When they had moved in with Aunt Gus and Uncle Curtis, she had been relieved. Then she wanted her own place, but couldn’t afford anywhere she moved back here. At first it had been weird, and slightly creepy. But she had made it a home. Especially when she was with Dolls.

He always made this place feel more like home. She would wake up in the morning to the smell of coffee and bacon and go downstairs to find him making breakfast. They would sit at the table as she scarfed down the pancakes and bacon he had made for her, but he would always just eat a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit on top. He would tell her how unhealthy bacon was for her and how she should eat something healthier for breakfast and she would reply that he was the one that made it for her so it was obviously his fault. He would smile and shake his head as he took another sip of coffee or bite of oatmeal. They both knew the next day he would make her some more. Sure, they had had their problems, but they always worked it out. They always ended up back together. He always ended up back in that kitchen making her breakfast.

Until one day she saw Nedley drive up to this house. There had been a shooting and they needed to get to the hospital immediately. When they got there, Waverly was already in the waiting room sitting next to her wife who was covered in blood. Nicole had been at the station when the officer down got called out on the radio. She had obviously rushed to the scene and kept pressure on the wound until paramedics had arrived. The blood had made it more real for Wynonna. With the amount covering her sister-in-law, she knew it was bad. They sat there for hours. After two hours had passed Waverly managed to convince Nicole take a quick shower in a staff bathroom offered by a nurse in order to get the blood off. Nicole came back less then ten minutes later with no blood on her and wearing scrubs also offered by the nurse so Nicole could wait with her family in clean clothes. Five more hours passed before a doctor finally came out, just to tell them that he was dead. They had tried to word it nicer than that, but the fact was that Dolls was dead. The man she cared about was dead. The man that she…. No. She had no right to think those words now when she had been too cowardly to say them to his face when she had the chance. She didn’t know what to do without him. He had made her feel happy and alive and now he was gone. He was dead and this house that had only felt like a home with him in it was dead too.

She knew she had to change something. Waverly was right. It had gone too far. She had gone too far. She had done the one thing she had promised herself she would never do the day Winter was born. She had allowed Winter to experience what her own childhood had been like. One filled with booze and abuse. She had done a lot of things she was ashamed of in her life, but this was by far the worst. When Waverly had told her that her niece was scared of her…. She thought she could never feel worse. But then she learned what Jason had done and it felt like God himself had smacked her even lower. She knew Jason wasn’t a good guy, but at the time she hadn’t cared. She felt like he was what she deserved after taking Dolls for granted the way she did. But she never thought she would expose her own self-hatred to Winter.

With her decision made she stood up from the kitchen table and went to her cabinets. There in front of her were more bottles of whiskey than Jack Daniels himself would know what to do with. She grabbed one and immediately started to pour it down the drain. She couldn’t do this anymore. She couldn’t be this person that hurts everyone around her. Her little sister had been begging her to get better with tears in her eyes, and Wynonna was determined to follow through. After one was through, she placed the empty bottle on the table and went for the next one, and then the next, until all the bottles were empty and sitting on her kitchen table. Then she moved on to the beer in the fridge. To be honest, when all the empty whiskey and beer bottles were on the table she was surprised by how much alcohol she actually had in her house. She grabbed a garbage bag from under the sink and placed all the bottles inside before throwing the bag in the back of her pickup. She wanted them all gone now, not a trace left. It honestly felt really good when she tossed that bag into the dump. But she wasn’t done.

She had all this anger building up inside of her, and knew what she needed to do. She drove over to the station before bursting through the door. Nedley was standing by the desk, his eyes instantly darkened when he saw her.

“What are you doing here, Earp?” His voice wasn’t tinted with his normal joking annoyance. This time he sounded like he legitimately didn’t want anything to do with her. She knew why, though. And she deserved it. But she wasn’t here for him.

“Is he here?”

“Who?”

“The fucker who thought he could hurt my niece! Is he here? Because I have a few choice words for him and his ass has an appointment with my boot.”

“You mean Mr. Brady? You want to pay for his bail?”

“No, I don’t want to pay for his fucking bail! I want to beat the shit out of him!”

“Why would you care enough to do that? Considering you niece was in your care when the event occurred. Actually, you are very lucky that you weren’t arrested as well for negligence.” Wynonna flinched at his words.

“If you did, I would deserve it. I should have done so much more for Win. But I can’t change that now. What I can do is cut the bastard’s balls off. After that you can arrest me for whatever the hell you want, but just let me do that first.” Nedley’s eyes softened as he looked at the distraught brunette in front of him.

“Come into my office.” He waved her over and walked away. Wynonna silently followed, sitting in the chair in front of his desk as he closed the door behind them. He sat down at his desk and they just sat in silence for a few minutes. “He’s not here. He’s being held in Calgary, to prevent a conflict of interest. But that’s not why I brought you in here. I don’t think I have to tell you how disappointed I was to hear what had happened,” the sheriff finally spoke. “But not just in you, in myself as well.” Wynonna looked at Nedley in surprise. “I knew you were struggling. I could see it. But I just ignored it. I thought you would figure it out for yourself, or Waverly or Gus would figure it out. I should have done more. Dolls was my officer and he died on my watch. I should have done more to make sure that his family was taken care of.”

“You shouldn’t feel bad. I should’ve been able to recognize that I had gone too far. I shouldn’t have allowed Winter to see me like that.”

“That may be true. But everyone needs help sometimes. Everyone has a breaking point. I should have seen that you had reached yours. But the question is now, what are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to change. I’ve already dumped all my liquor. I’m not touching the stuff. Not if it means losing my family.”

“I’m proud of you for taking that step. It’s definitely a big one. But you know, you might need some help with that.”

“I don’t want to involve Waverly or Nicole. Not after everything I’ve already put them through. They need to concentrate on Winter right now, not me.”

“While I do think that both Waverly and Nicole would still be willing to help you, that is not who I meant. You and your Aunt Gus may not have always gotten along, but I know she loves you and would help you if you asked. I’m here too. For whatever you need. I also know of some AA meetings in Calgary. I could give you some addresses.” Wynonna was deep in thought. She still didn’t want to involve Nicole or Waverly. But it might not be a bad idea to call Gus. As much as she wanted to be able to do this on her own, she knew she would probably need someone. Someone who would make sure she wouldn’t slide back into bad habits. Who wouldn’t let her get away with anything. Gus would definitely fit that bill.

“I’ll think about it. Thanks sheriff.” She stood up and opened the door before closing it and turning back around. “Actually, can I have an address?” Nedley smiled before quickly writing an address on a piece of paper.

“By the way, Wynonna.” Nedley said as he handed her the piece of paper. “You didn’t hear this from me, but Mr. Brady was discovered to have been pretty beat up when he was arrested. Me and my officers have no idea who could’ve done it, the RCMP don’t either.”

“I didn’t do it. I’m not saying I don’t want to, you heard what I said earlier, but it wasn’t me.”

“I don’t think you quite understand.” Wynonna looked at the sheriff and suddenly understood as she looked into his eyes.

“Oh! I have to say Nedley I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Wynonna. As I said, he was arrested with the injuries. A RCMP investigator was the one there to actually arrest him. My officers were just there for support.” Wynonna smiled at him in understanding.

“Well, I sure do hope you find the culprit, sheriff. We wouldn’t want someone who could do that out on the streets.”

“I’m using every resource I have deemed necessary to find the person.”

“Well then, I better get going. You know, things to do.” Wynonna said as she held up the piece of paper just given to her and walked back out the door. She was going to be better. Better for Dolls. Better for Nicole. Better for Waverly. Better for Winter. Better for herself. Even if she had to swallow her pride to do it.


	7. Moving Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waverly and Gus talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a really short chapter, sorry. But I felt very strongly about having Gus in this story for some reason. I also needed a chapter in between the darkness and many negative emotions of the previous chapter and the next/last chapter, which will be an epilogue.

The past few weeks had been going well. Jason had been arrested by RCMP investigators, and he would be tried in Edmonton by the Provincial Court. What mattered is that he was in jail and away from them. He’d had the nerve to call Wynonna and ask her to pay his bail and for a lawyer. He’d gotten an earful until his phone time ran out. Luckily, he had been smart enough to not try and call again.

Waverly had also managed to complete her semester and take her finals without a problem. She had tried to tell Nicole that she could move her tests while dealing with this, that her professors would understand. Nicole had argued back that Nedley had already given her the week off so it wasn’t like they would have to trust Winter with anyone else, and that court cases could take months so it was better to just get it over with. After a lot of back and forth Waverly agreed to take the finals, but did ask her professors if she could take them at earlier dates so that she could get them over with and quickly concentrate on her family. Most of her professors agreed with only one being stingy about when the test could be taken.

The biggest change, however, was with Wynonna. Wynonna had talked to Waverly about some things the day Waverly had confronted her sister, but once she started going to AA meetings in Calgary she pulled back a bit. Waverly wished that her sister would still talk to her about it, but she understood why she would want to keep somethings private.

Waverly was trying to figure out if there was a way to show Wynonna that she could talk to her as she wiped down the counter for the morning cleaning of Shorty’s.

“Girl, you’ve been cleaning that same spot for five minutes. I think it’s clean.” Waverly quickly spun around to see her Aunt Gus coming up from the basement with a smile on her face.

“Sorry Gus. You know me, always a perfectionist.” Gus slowly walked over to her niece and sat in the stool across from her. She gently took the rag from Waverly’s hands before taking them in her own.

“What’s wrong?”

“What isn’t?” Waverly said with a sarcastic chuckle.

“Is Winter still having nightmares? I thought you said that the therapist was helping with that.”

“No, I mean yes. Winter is still seeing the therapist and the nightmares have gotten better. We’re down to one a week, but she still needs Nicole or I there when she falls asleep.”

“That’s good. Then is it you and Nicole? You said that she forgave you for everything. I’m still sorry about that. If I had known that you really needed me there, I could’ve moved some stuff around.”

“No, you couldn’t have. Shorty’s needed the money and you needed to be there to make sure everything went smoothly. It was good business that will hopefully mean more people will book events here. It was my fault. When you said you couldn’t do it I should have told Nicole. We had other options. But Nicole has forgiven me. She told me so and she hasn’t shown any indication that that wasn’t the truth.”

“If it isn’t Winter and it isn’t Nicole, then that leaves one other option.”

“I’m just worried about her.”

“She’s doing okay. Really. She feels a lot of guilt and she’s working through some things, but she’s getting better.”

“Yeah, well, you would know that. _You_ drive her to the AA meetings every week. I’m sure she talks to you. Meanwhile I have no clue what’s going on.”

“Waverly…”

“I know I know, that’s kind of selfish of me. It’s Wynonna’s business, she gets to decide who knows. It’s just—We used to tell each other everything. She was the one I went running to when I got my first period and I didn’t know what the hell was going on. I ran to her bed when I had nightmares about daddy or Willa. She was the first person I told I was gay. The first person I told that I was dating Nicole. The first person I told when I thought I was pregnant. She was the one who bought the pregnancy test for me and then she drove me to the hospital so they could run their own test. And I thought she told me everything too. She told me about her nightmares about daddy. When she had that pregnancy scare, she told me. She came to me right after Dolls died. I know it might be easier for me to go to her because I’m the little sister, but still… I thought she would talk to me about something like this.”

“I know this might hurt darling, but this might be something that she has to do herself. She had a lot of demons, even before the death of her officer. She was so used to burying them in him and Winter and you. I think when she lost one of those pillars, especially the way she did, she didn’t know how to function anymore. Now she’s learning how to do that. How to be herself without relying on other people or alcohol.”

“It just feels like she doesn’t trust me or something.”

“Oh sweetheart.” Gus walked around the counter and pulled Waverly into a hug. Waverly returned it and started crying into her aunt’s shoulder. “It’s not that she doesn’t trust you. You know Wynonna trusts you more than anyone.”

“Then why is she telling you everything and not me?”

“I think partially because she wants to do this by herself. She only tells me some things, honestly not a whole lot. She answers my questions, but she doesn’t volunteer much.”

“What’s the other part?”

“The guilt about Winter. That your daughter was the one who was hurt the most by her drinking. I know you are willing to forgive her for what’s happened, and maybe you already have, but I think she wants to be better before she brings you into her shit. I also know for a fact that she wants all of your focus to be on your little girl.”

“But I want to be there for her too.”

“I know you do, but maybe you should let her do this. You can reach out to her, maybe tell her how Winter is doing and let her know that you still want to support her anyway you can. But if she tells you that she wants to do this herself then you need to respect that.” Waverly pulled back and wiped her face with her sleeve.

“Okay,” Waverly said as she took a deep breath. “I can do that. And thanks Gus. For putting things into perspective and helping me to understand.”

“Always darling.” Gus cupped Waverly’s face before kissing her cheek and walking away. “Now spend some time with your family, you’ve done enough here.” She called back without even turning around. Waverly knew that she wouldn’t be able to convince Gus otherwise, even if she had stuck around to give Waverly the chance. Waverly just put the rag back where it belonged and gathered her things. Before leaving she pulled her phone out.

_Wanna have lunch tomorrow? Just really miss my sister._

“Why wait until tomorrow when we can just hang out today? As long as it’s okay with Gus if I steal you for a bit.” Waverly looked up and saw her sister walking through the door. Waverly felt her heart warming at the sight. Wynonna’s eyes looked clearer than she can ever remember. She somehow looked stronger and more confident too, even though Waverly had never thought of her sister in any other way.

“Gus gave me the rest of the day off. Talking about spending time with my family.”

“Oh,” Wynonna looked disappointed, but tried to play it off. “I guess you should head home then. Haughtstuff and the kid will be waiting for you.” The younger brunette looked down and realized her sister was flipping something between her fingers. A little red chip. She gasped as she realized what it must be. Wynonna had been sober for a whole month.

“I think I have time to spend some time with my sister. Especially if she has some news.” The leather clad woman smiled but looked down in nervousness.

“Yeah, I have some news I really want to share.”


	8. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How are they around a year and a half later?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. The end. I know this is a little quick for an ending, but here it is. I hope you guys like it.
> 
> I don't know how bouncy castle rental works, so it might be wrong here.
> 
> This may be common knowledge but a shiv is basically a stabbing weapon in jail/prison using whatever materials prisoners can find. A sharpened toothbrush, a pen with a razor blade attached, cell-made papier-mâché that is sharpened, all of those could be shivs.

“Auntie Nonna!” Nicole watched as her six-year-old ran across the backyard to meet her sister-in-law who just walked through the back door. Nicole was glad that Wynonna could be here. Winter hadn’t seen her aunt for almost a year after the incident with Jason. During that time Wynonna was completely sober. She had had a few close calls and even fewer actual slipups but had managed to call Gus or Waverly before she went too far, who quickly went to her to talk her down. She had been completely sober for 10 months now. Wynonna had consistently gone to AA meetings, and still did to this day. Nicole watched her daughter reach up so her aunt would pick her up. Wynonna immediately did as the little girl wanted and lifted her up into the air before settling her in her arms and kissing all over her face. Nicole followed her daughter to greet her best friend.

“Hey Win! How is the birthday girl today?” The little girl giggled as her aunt tickled her side.

“Great! Mommy got me a bouncy castle!”

“She did, did she? Well you must be a very special little girl to get a bouncy castle.” Wynonna smirked at Nicole knowing that she had been with Nicole at the store picking out the perfect one to rent.

“Do you want to come bounce with me? Mommy says Mama’s not allowed to, but you can, right?”

“Why is Mama not allowed?”

“Why do you think?” Wynonna and Nicole turned to see a pregnant Waverly bringing out some more snacks.

“Because of the baby, Auntie Nonna!” The little brunette started giggling at her aunt’s forgetfulness. Nicole and Wynonna laughed along with her before Nicole walked over to her wife, who was still standing there staring at them, and taking the platter from her hands.

“You don’t need to carry this, baby. In fact, you really shouldn’t be.” Waverly huffed before lightly slapping her wife’s arm.

“I’m not allowed to lift heavy things. And I’m only six months pregnant, it’s not like I’m about to pop.”

“You’re six and a half months pregnant. And you shouldn’t be lifting _or_ _carrying_ heavy things.”

“A platter of food is not heavy, Nicole.”

“Just let her take care of you, baby girl. You know she’ll just hover around you anyways if you don’t.” Wynonna called back to Waverly as she started carrying her niece to the newly blown up bouncy castle.

“Fine,” Waverly sighed. “I’ll let you carry stuff, but if you think all I’m going to do is sit around during my daughter’s birthday party then you have another thing coming. And if you won’t let me carry anything then that means I’m on grill duty.”

“See, baby, you are an amazing cook. But we have a gas grill and I don’t think—”

“Nicole.”

“Fine,” Nicole conceded. “If it keeps you from carrying stuff, then you can run the grill. But if you start to feel dizzy then tell me. Or if you get tired. Just—If anything feels wrong at all, then tell me.” Waverly giggled at her wife’s antics before giving her a quick peck and walking over to the grill to make sure everything was in order.

The party was a hit. All of Winter’s friends came and most spent the majority of the time in the bouncy castle, with Wynonna right there with them. Nicole was actually happy that Wynonna stayed in the bouncy castle. An adult should be in there to keep an eye on them, and she trusted that Wynonna would make sure everyone was safe. It took a long time for Wynonna to earn that trust back. But after watching how seriously she was taking her the situation and her sobriety, Nicole started to believe in her best friend again. She still got nervous when Wynonna watched Winter alone, but after each time Winter came back safe and sound the knot in Nicole’s chest got a little looser. As the party started to wind down and people started to leave Nicole decided to start to break down the bouncy castle so it could be picked up the next morning, and Wynonna was bringing in the gifts to the house as Waverly said goodbye to the last people leaving. Suddenly, Nicole’s phone started ringing. She was surprised to see her boss calling.

“If you’re calling me in, sir, I would like to remind you that you just left my daughter’s birthday party.” Nicole answered jokingly.

“Jason Brady was killed in prison.” Nedley said seriously.

“How?” Nicole whispered after a moment.

“You know as well as I do that cons don’t take too kindly to people in prison for crimes related to kids. There was a fight, by the time the guards broke it up he had a shiv in his throat. They don’t know who did it. I just thought you should know.”

“Thank you, sir.” Nedley said his goodbye and hung up. Nicole didn’t know how to feel. A man was dead. But it was a man who had hurt her daughter. She wouldn’t lie and say that she hadn’t thought of killing him when she learned what he had done, but she knew she would never follow through. Now he was actually dead and she was frozen. She heard someone walking up behind her.

“What’s going on Haughtstuff?” Wynonna patted her back with her smile on her face. “You’re supposed to be deflating the thing, not just standing around.”

“Jason Brady is dead.” The smile was wiped off of Wynonna’s face.

“What?”

“A fight broke out in prison. He got stabbed in the throat.”

“Huh. Couldn’t have happened to a better person.”

“Don’t say that. A man is dead.”

“A man who hurt your kid.”

“I know. Trust me, I know. But he didn’t deserve to die. If I heard he had been beaten up a little I would probably be fine with it, but dead? I hated him so much. I still do. But I didn’t want him dead.”

They were silent for a few moments before Wynonna whispered. “Do you still hate me?”

“What?” Nicole looked at Wynonna in disbelief.

“You said that you still hated him. What about me? I hurt Winter too.”

“That’s different.”

“Is it?”

“You didn’t hit my daughter, Wynonna. He grabbed her and screamed at her and hit her. I was disappointed in you and a little angry, but I never hated you. And I’m so proud of you now.”

“Really?”

“Really. Wynonna, you have worked so hard this passed year and a half. You are not the same person Waverly left our little girl with all those months ago. You are completely sober, and you go to meetings. Just today I was thinking about how I was grateful that you were in the bouncy castle making sure all the kids were safe. You may still be our wild Wynonna who rides motorcycles and hauls in bounties. But you are also someone I am completely confident in leaving my kid with. I know you would never do anything to hurt her. I forgive you for what happened. Now you just need to forgive yourself.” Wynonna nodded her head and quickly wiped her face with her hand.

“Thank you.”

“Of course. Now, can you help me deflate this thing?” Wynonna laughed as she walked over to the machine.

“Sure, Haughtshit. What would you do without me?” Nicole was happy to hear Wynonna back to her snarky self. Slowly but surely their old Wynonna was coming back. She just shook her head and bumped Wynonna out of the way so she could do it correctly.

“What would we do without you indeed.” They finally managed to deal with the castle and made their way inside. Nicole was immediately tackled by a little six-year-old.

“Mommy! Mama made tacos!” Nicole smiled down at the little brunette before looking up to see her wife smiling at her from the kitchen doorway.

“She did? I wonder why she would have made those?”

“Because they’re my favorite Mommy!”

“No, lasagna is your favorite, or was it lemon scones?”

“Mommy, those are your and Mama’s favorites. Mine is tacos!”

“Oh, that’s right. I guess we better eat soon or else someone may have to eat whoever is closest.” Nicole lifted up her little girl and pretended to eat her belly. Winter’s giggles made her heart swell with joy. The redhead was making her way to the kitchen with the tiny brunette over her shoulder when she heard her daughter call out.

“Auntie Nonna, you’re having dinner with us, right?” Nicole turned around and saw Wynonna nervously shifting her weight and not quite looking at her niece.

“I don’t know, Win. Your moms probably want to spend your birthday dinner just with you.” Nicole turned her head to her wife who looked saddened by her sister’s words. Waverly’s eyes met Nicole’s and she immediately nodded her head, which the redhead returned.

“Don’t be silly, Wynonna.” Waverly told her sister. “You’re always welcome here. Plus, it’s Winter’s birthday. What Winter wants Winter gets. Right sweetheart?”

“Yeah!” Winter emphatically nodded her head. “Please Auntie Nonna. Mama makes the best tacos in the whole world.” Wynonna’s face lit up. She immediately walked over to Winter and grabbed her from her mother’s arms.

“You may be right about that. You know your Mama was making me food since she was ten years old? Her first few tries may have ended up a little burned though.”

“Wynonna!” Nicole watched as her wife and sister-in-law brought her daughter into the kitchen. Wynonna sat down at the head of the table after placing Winter in her chair next to her. Waverly went to grab the food from the stove as she insisted that she had never burned anything in her entire life. As opposed to Wynonna who only knew how to burn food. The image made her smile. They almost lost this. They almost lost Wynonna at their dinner table, making Winter laugh. She almost lost her best friend, her sister. But here she was. After over a year of working really hard on making herself better, Wynonna was here. At their table. With their daughter.

“Haughtstuff? You gonna eat with us or just stand there staring at us like a stalker?” Nicole laughed at Wynonna’s antics before joining her family for dinner.


End file.
